It's elementary for Watson

Harry Potter fans might not be able to let go of Emma Watson as Hermione just yet. But the 22-year-old’s doing her best to take the first step away from the role she grew up playing.

The new direction arrives with the comedy-drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was featured at the Toronto International Film Festival Sept. 8 and opens in theatres Sept. 21.

In the movie, the English actress plays the against-type Sam in a striking way. For one thing, Sam’s an American high school senior from Pittsburgh in the 1980s. She’s also an extrovert and buddy to her flamboyant stepbrother Patrick (Ezra Miller).

Sam and Patrick befriend the timid introvert Charlie (Logan Lerman), who is a freshman suffering from psychological withdrawal after, among other things, his best friend commits suicide.

With assistance from an English teacher (played by Paul Rudd) who cares, and his new buddies, Charlie tries dutifully to rise above his lowly depression. As he does, his sidekicks Sam and Patrick introduce Charlie to a world of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.

Watson couldn’t resist the challenge of defining a party girl in her first major post-Potter performance, but she had some anxious moments.

“I was terrified,” said Watson. “On the first day (at the Pittsburgh set), I was just so nervous. I was doing a different accent, being on a new set in a foreign country with a crew that I didn’t know and a cast I didn’t know.”

She overcame her trepidation quickly. It helped, too, that writer-director Stephen Chbosky had an enthusiastic vision for the project right from the start. The Pittsburgh-born novelist wrote the best-selling 1999 book the film is based on, and refused to give up the movie rights until he could direct.

Watson was tough to convince, but the writer-director was thrilled she accepted the challenge. “Emma is absolutely luminous in the role,” he said. “She took it very seriously.”

And she wasn’t alone in her quest to do something completely different. Lerman can relate to Watson’s need for change. He made a name for himself in the fantasy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and as D’Artagnan in last year’s redo of The Three Musketeers.

As Charlie, Lerman had to dig deep to define the dysfunctional teen, just as Watson went to emotional places she’d never been in order to reveal the darker side of the damaged Sam. Miller, whose Patrick has his own issues to sort out, said he felt a bond between the trio.

That was especially true when they had to mime scenes from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with the classic cult flick playing in the background.

“I have to mimic Susan Sarandon in The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” said Watson. “And I’m standing there in a corset in front of all these extras trying to do this dance. I felt ridiculous.”

But she also felt like maybe there might be more to her career than the Potter pictures.

“It’s funny,” admitted Watson. “I’m constantly doing things that are new to me, and so that takes bravery. I guess.”

The daughter of British lawyers, she moved from Paris to Oxfordshire, England, with her mother after her parents’ divorce.

She attended the Stagecoach Theatre Arts school, where she performed in amateur productions, but auditioned for the role of Hermione as a lark.

“But we knew almost from the first moment we saw her that Emma was going to be our Hermione,” remembered Potter producer David Heyman.

In fact, Watson earned the best reviews in the first few Potter movies, and blossomed from a nine-year-old girl to a young adult in the series that set box-office records and catapulted her and colleagues Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint into the stratosphere of fame.

“Once I came to terms with fame, it sort of helped me deal with it,” Watson said.

She continues on her quest of doing something a little bit different as she takes an extended break from studies at Brown University in the U.S. and Oxford in England.

Currently, she’s shooting the Christian epic Noah with Russell Crowe in the lead role. It’s due in theatres by 2014.

Next year, we can catch her in two movies. Watson plays, ironically, a compulsive fan, who helps rob the homes of Los Angeles celebrities in the fact-based The Bling Ring and she co-stars in Seth Rogen’s action comedy The End of the World. Add The Perks of Being a Wallflower to that Post-Potter list, and you might say, “Mission accomplished, Emma.”

“I think it’s just about trying to have faith and believe in yourself, and maybe it’ll become right in the end, hopefully,” said Watson.

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